BALTIMORE HEBREW CONGREGATION Rabbi Andrew Busch Rabbi Elissa Sachs-Kohen Cantor Ben Ellerin Cantor Ann G. Sacks Rabbi Rex D. Perlmeter, Emeritus BULLETIN Rabbi Gustav Buchdahl, Emanuel Emeritus Cantor Robbie Solomon, Emeritus Number 8 | April 2019 | 25 Adar II – 25 Nissan 5779 BALTIMOREHEBREW.ORG B’NAI MITZVAH RETREAT SEE PAGE 6 FOR DETAILS. Take a Peek Inside . New and Returning Members . 2 Collecting for IOSC . 5 E .B . Hirsh Early Childhood Center . .9 Todah Rabbah . 2 Rabbi Busch’s Sabbatical . 5 Chai Life . 9 From the Clergy . 2 Clergy Visits . 5 Hoffberger Gallery . 9 From the President . 3 Holocaust Study Day . 5 Women of BHC . 10 Carol J . Caplan Award Recipients . 3 Passover at BHC . 6 Brotherhood News . 10 Annual Meeting . 3 Celebrate Israel with Music . .6 Offerings . 11-13 Upcoming at BHC . 4 Night of the Stars . 7 April Events . 15 Program Highlights . 5 Youth Education . 8 Service Schedule . 16 WELCOME NEW AND RETURNING MEMBERS! FROM THE CLERGY We welcome the following congregants who have joined BHC since the DAYEINU: IT WOULD HAVE BEEN publication of our March Bulletin ENOUGH No holiday is without its stress, but I’ve always thought Amy Highstein-Berman & Stuart Berman that there is a lot to love about Passover. As a young child, I Neith Little & Andrew Davis thought Passover was like a Jewish version of Thanksgiving. Sarah & Mark Davison It was a time for great food, for being together with family, Brandy & David Dopkin and as a bonus, it was a time for singing. I did not have Phylis & Brian Felderstein an especially musical family but I have fond memories of Ethan Felderstein singing the Four Questions and how together we tried to Harriet & Marc Horwitz remember how the words and music fit together for Chad Gadya and Dayeinu. Like Lorie Rombro & Benjamin Mann Thanksgiving, Passover is also a natural time for reflecting: Has it really been a whole Welsley Nazzaro year since last Passover? Where was I physically last year at this time? What was going Lauren & Randy Shapiro on in our lives last year at this time? As I begin preparing for Passover this year, I’m aware of yet another connection with Thanksgiving: the sense of gratitude, the thanks, if you will, at the heart of both TODAH RABBAH holidays. Some years are easier or harder than others for us as individuals or for our The Kiddush on March 2 was sponsored families, but one of my favorite Jewish expressions comes from Passover: Dayeinu– by Elaine Scott, Michael Rosenblatt, Marc it would have been enough. It’s not just the refrain to a catchy seder song; there’s a O’Mansky, Karen O’Mansky, Ed Rosenblatt, whole philosophy in being able to say Dayeinu and really mean it. and Matt O’Mansky in honor of the special While searching through various Haggadot for meaningful readings recently, I birthdays of Marlyn O’Mansky and Marcia came across an excerpt from a University of Oregon Haggadah. It poses the question, Rosenblatt. can we differentiate between “more” and “enough?” We always want more in life, more freedom, more attention, more love, more knowledge, more respect, more time, more The Oneg Shabbat on April 5 is sponsored by money, more stuff. More and more and more, and by the way, we want it now. Sharon & Sherwood Libit in honor of their This reading really made me think about what Dayeinu can teach us about how grandson Elliot becoming a Bar Mitzvah. we reflect on our own lives. Are we viewing our lives through a lens of gratitude or through a lens of “not enough” or “not good enough?” In so many ways, our lives are overflowing with “enough.” And, where we do experience “more,” those moments especially deserve our gratitude. That’s not to say that we won’t also find difficult areas in our lives—of course we will. We all experience times where we are truly caught BHC IS COLLECTING... in narrow places, but this Passover season, as we consider how many people in our • Non-perishable Food for GEDCO larger community truly do not even have enough from day to day, I invite us to be Cares Food Pantry. Please note increasingly thankful for all those parts of our lives where we do have “enough,” and even more grateful for where we have “more.” GEDCO Cares Food Pantry is – Cantor Ellerin currently running low on the following items: spaghetti sauce, canned tomatoes, canned veggies, canned tuna, and canned TRANSPORTATION TO BHC salmon. Baltimore Hebrew Congregation wants to help you get to services and events. • Clothing, shoes, belts, purses, We have two different services that provide rides to members of BHC and BHC’s blankets, sheets, pillowcases, auxiliaries. drapes and stuffed animals for On behalf of BHC Cares, we offer assistance by arranging transportation to BHC all ages and genders for CHANA. services and events. INFO: Sid Bravmann, 410-952-6352. Please place in bags no larger The Irene Gogel Transportation Fund offers taxi transportation, at no charge, than white kitchen trash bags. for congregants and auxiliary group members who have no alternative means of • Frozen casseroles for Our Daily attending BHC services and activities. INFO: Temple Office, 410-764-1587. Bread. • Household cleaning supplies YAHRZEIT REMINDER personal care items, and gift To have a Yahrzeit name read, call the Temple Office or fill out a card when you come cards from major retailers for the to a service. INFO: Iris Powell, [email protected] or 410-764-1587, ext. 224. Immigration Outreach Service Center. For specifics see page 5. • DISCLAIMERS • Place your donations in the labeled, wooden 1 . All prices, events and times published in the Bulletin are current at the time of bins near the Hoffberger Chapel. Please publication, but are subject to change . drop the frozen casseroles off in the freezer 2 . Publication of an advertisement in the Bulletin is neither an endorsement nor at BHC. recommendation of any advertisers’ products or services by BHC . 2 Baltimore Hebrew Congregation Bulletin • Number 8 • April 2019 • 25 Adar II – 25 Nissan 5779 ANNUAL MEETING BHC’s Annual Meeting is on Friday, May 3; we hope that you will FROM THE join us. The reception begins at 5 PM and the meeting starts at 5:30 PM, when we will thank outgoing Board members and be updated about BHC’s past year and plans for the future. The Shabbat Service PRESIDENT at 6:15 PM will honor Rabbi Busch for his 10-year anniversary at PASSOVER: INCLUDING NEW BHC and for receiving his honorary doctorate at Hebrew Union IDEAS WITH TRADITION College in New York for 25 years in the rabbinate. The service will I hope our BHC community will share new ideas for be followed by an Oneg Shabbat. Come celebrate the fantastic year engaging the Passover table while keeping favorite that was 2018-19. traditions alive. Passover is just around the corner and with that comes the tradition of the seder; at CONGRATULATIONS TO THE CAROL the same time we should be comfortable to add something new. Who knows, the new things we add today may be traditions of the future. J. CAPLAN SERVICE & COMMITMENT For those of us who worry about the future of American Jewry, Passover AWARD RECIPIENTS brings some comfort. According to a 2014 Pew Research Center study, Join us on Friday, May 3 as we honor Tracie approximately 70% of Americans who identify as Jewish attend a Guy-Decker and Jordan Loran with the Carol Passover seder. That is way more than those who fast on Yom Kippur, J. Caplan Service and Commitment Award for light Shabbat candles, attend religious services, or keep kosher. This Tracie’s work on the Social Justice Committee number remains significant, even for those Jews whom Pew labeled and Jordan’s involvement with Traffic Squad. as “Jews of no religion.” According to Pew, fully 40% of those in that The evening will begin at 5 PM with a reception, demographic who have only tenuous ties to faith and community followed by the Annual Meeting and Shabbat participate in a seder. This level of participation makes the seder one Service with an Oneg Shabbat. of the few remaining connections to a Jewish tradition for many Jews. Tracie Guy-Decker, Deputy Director of The Jewish Museum in If we find that the seder and the Passover holiday have become just Baltimore, was a High Holy Day Jew growing up. Later, she and another rote example of custom without meaning, it might be time her husband, David, joined BHC, and they became regular Shabbat to reexamine the holiday and make changes to our celebration. One attendees. It was right after Freddie Grey’s death that Rabbi Sachs- example is the new, alternative seder where we try to remember that Kohen led a conversation about race, class, and privilege that the seder is not just an extended history lesson: It is an immersive inspired her to act. “I felt religiously obligated to make a difference experience. The goal is for every participant to imagine he or she has in the world,” she said. been delivered from Egypt, to experience the journey from slavery to After the service, Tracie met with Rabbi Sachs-Kohen to suggest freedom. How might you do this? As a leader of our family service, I am a BHC Book Club focusing on race and privilege. Rabbi Busch also going to try three new things: thought it was a great idea and suggested that Tracie run it. She 1) Seders today address issues around the world, including poverty, wasn’t comfortable doing it at first, but she said yes.